For almost four hundred years, three civilizations put an
endless stream of energy and people into a great movement called the
Crusades. Beautiful cities were destroyed, armies clashed and lives were
lost. It accomplished nothing.
The
goal had been the ideal of a pope: to capture Jerusalem and establish a
new Christendom. But motives became corrupted and confused and the
original ideal was lost, and in the end, the people were left
disillusioned. Nevertheless, countless thousands joined, and continued
to join, the Crusades for reasons ranging from faith to folly. From
Little Peter and the First Crusade in 1075 to those who followed Pope
Pius II in 1464, there are emperors, knights, thieves and paupers, all
with a dream and a unique purpose in mind.
Olivia Coolidge has created an entertaining and often ironic collection of stories of the harrowing triumph and ultimate tragedy of the Crusades in which she successfully avoids taking sides or moralizing, leaving the reader to draw his own conclusions. Recommended for high school.